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Cheats and Walkthroughs

Mass Effect 3: Extended Cut is a free DLC pack coming from BioWare in summer 2012 that will bring additional detail to the game's controversial ending, a morning press release confirms. The announcement notes that the Extended Cut pack will deliver "additional cinematic sequences and epilogue scenes" aimed at giving fans "deeper insight into how their personal journey concludes."

The download will of course be available for all platforms -- those being PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and PC -- and they won't cost a cent. Casey Hudson, the game's director, added: "We have reprioritized our post-launch development efforts to provide the fans who want more closure with even more context and clarity to the ending of the game, in a way that will feel more personalized for each player.”

A cynical person might look at that quote and realize it means that actual play-oriented DLC will be coming later as a result. None of you readers are cynics though, right?

For those who need a spoiler-free recap, the March 6 release of Mass Effect 3 was greeted with a considerable amount of criticism by fans who felt dissatisfied with the way the game ended. The overriding complaint for most is that, for all the choices players have made over the course of three 40-plus hour games, the end didn't deliver enough in the way of answers and closure. Various fan-led protests spawned online as a result, and BioWare has patiently addressed those concerns every step of the way.

Your best bet for catching up on all that's transpired is probably the latest episode of Feedback, in which Blair Herter, Nikole Zivalich, Stephen Johnson, and Donell Tucker discuss the situation at length.

Also, just to be clear about this new content: don't expect a changed ending. This is a clarification, an expansion. One that will hopefully offer more context to those who feel that what's on the disc is lacking. Also, the press release notes that the Extended Cut DLC content will only be free until April 12, 2014. So... uhhhh... yeah. Be sure you get on that right away and stuff.